


Stronger Together (because loneliness makes you weak)

by Dreaming_of_a_Bright_Sky



Category: Warcraft (2016)
Genre: Canon levels of violence, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7746238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreaming_of_a_Bright_Sky/pseuds/Dreaming_of_a_Bright_Sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anduin learns to regret words he spoke in drunken, grieving anger...and finds out that Medivh was right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stronger Together (because loneliness makes you weak)

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be fluff but well...it went angst on me. 
> 
> I guess it balances out the other story I'll be posting tonight which is fluffy.
> 
> Probably OC, but my brain has had a few of these rattling around and here one is.
> 
> I'm just playing in this world. I do not own it or the characters, and I'm making no money from it.

 Anduin didn't even know which pub he was in. He'd been kicked out of the first one, and then he'd stumbled along until he all but fell into this one. Someone settled beside him and he looked up blearily. Khadgar. The mage ordered his own drink and sat there next to Anduin silently. He didn't ask or demand. He was just a warm presence at his side.

The next day he was training the new recruits. It was a desperate attempt to fill the ranks before they were forced to face the orcs again. Khadgar slipped inside and found an out of the way corner. He sat there all morning, reading and scribbling in a book. He slipped back out when they broke for lunch.

This continued for several days until he decided to ask why. The mage didn't look at him, but stared down into his mug. “I heard you, you know...what you told Sargeras.”

Anduin flashed back to that moment. “Come on! Kill me! I've got nothing left to live for now anyway.” He downed the ale. “I was taunting him. Doing what you said and getting him into the pool.”

  Khadgar's dark eyes looked up at him, filled with something he couldn't decipher. It made him angry for no reason he could put his finger on. He stood, towering over the sitting mage. “So you heard me. Is this about pity, because I don't need it.”

Khadgar looked back, his expression set. “No. I'm trying to help you; like any friend would.”

“All my friends are dead!” He threw the mug across the room, and the pub went silent.

 Khadgar's face was pale in light of Anduin's anger. “Did I tell you what the Guardian said to me before he died?”

Lothar froze. He'd assumed Medivh had been dead when he'd left in the futile attempt to save Llane. 

“He said that it was the loneliness that makes you weak.” Khadgar stood. His voice grew soft. “I don't have any friends either.”

Anduin clenched his fists and kicked the stool he'd been sitting on, angry at the fact that even Medivh's last moments were stolen from him. His tone was vicious. “Leave. Me. Alone.”

Khadgar walked out. Anduin looked up and everybody was staring at him; looks equally pitying and judgmental. He followed the mage outside in time to see a flash of blue.

A sense of unease ran through him when the man didn't show up the next day but he shook it off. Days turned to weeks, and he finally gave in at a month. He went to Khadgar's room to find it empty. It was clean, of course, but with a sense of emptiness that meant the man had been gone a while. He wasn't alarmed until Taria pulled him aside one day. “Anduin, do you know where Khadgar has gone to? I sent a runner to Karazhan, but it's sealed, and the entire area has become dangerous.”

He couldn't answer her, and they had no word for months. Stories began trickling in about a mage protecting travelers and soldiers alike. Anduin got to verify this personally when he went on a recon mission near the portal. They'd been spotted by a group and several men were already down.

Anduin had already been battered around like a child's ball. The leader was a massive fighter with a sword as big as the Commander. Oddly fast for his size, he toyed with Anduin. He used the flat of the blade to send the warrior flying into a tree. No sooner had he managed to stand back up and a kick took him down. He got in some hits on his own, though. While down he'd slashed his sword across the orc's calf and hobbled him. When he roared in pain and came in for the kill, Anduin rolled and sliced the other leg.

The orc staggered, but wasn't out. It took a lurching step forward and raised its sword. A roiling bolt of power flung it away from him and when he turned his head, he saw Khadgar.

More bolts saved his men, though one massive fighter with a mace roared. It charged the mage. A blue bubble went up and the mace crackled with lightening as it hit the shield. Charred and smoking, the orc dropped and the clearing was silent. Down below, shouts were heard because the fight had drawn attention. They didn't have long to get away.  
  
Khadgar dropped the protection and pulled out Medivh's staff. In a build up of light, all of them were transported back to Stormwind. Anduin shook away the disorientation he always felt after traveling that way and looked up from where he lay on the ground. “Khadgar...”

The mage's face was impassive in a way he'd never seen before. It reminded him all too much of Medivh. Shaken, he rolled to get up; reaching out for the man...and without a blink the mage was gone.

That night he lay in a private room off of the infirmary, unable to sleep. Soft steps approached the door. His sword lay across the room, but he still had a dagger on him. Silently, he drew it. The door opened and a figure slipped inside. It stood by the door for the longest time, staring in Anduin's direction. With a sigh it turned to leave.  
  
“Stay, Khadgar. Please.”

He'd eventually made out the mage's face in the dim light. He didn't move, not knowing what might make the man port away- but he couldn't let Khadgar go without trying. He rolled to sit, one arm clutched around his ribs. He said the one thing he knew he should have said that night. “I'm sorry.” He tried to find a comfortable position but his battered body was sore everywhere. “We _are_ friends, and I'm sorry.”

Khadgar still hovered at the door. “I just wanted to make sure that you were still alive. You took some hard hits. I've seen men die from less.”

He had too, but he didn't say it. Didn't need to. The silence grew and he spotted the mage's hand move towards the door knob. “Khadgar...please. I don't want to lose you too.” The hand dropped. “Just stay.”

“Why?”

“Because you were right, and not just about you or Medivh. I'm surrounded by people but I'm alone, and I don't want to be alone anymore.”

The mage took a step forward. Then another. He crossed the floor to the cot and carefully sat down. “Neither do I.”

 


End file.
